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LingQ Academy - Tech Startup Course, Applying the 80/20 Rule to Your Content Creation and Promotion Strategies (1)

Applying the 80/20 Rule to Your Content Creation and Promotion Strategies (1)

When you create content, how long do you spend (on average) creating it, and how much time do you spend promoting it? 60% creation and 40% promotion? 40% creation and 60% promotion? An even 50/50 split?

How about 20% creation, and 80% promotion? Sound farfetched?

Well, this is the rule that Derek Halpern of Social Triggers lives by.

According to Derek:

“The secret to building a blog with a raving fan base that's ready to buy what you sell has nothing to do with how much content you create. It, instead, has to do with how good you are getting you are at getting your content into the hands of more people.” The logic behind Derek's rule is that it can be really difficult for bloggers and businesses, particularly those that are new to the game, to find an audience for their content. This means that they need to work extra hard; not necessarily at creating that content, but at getting people to consume and share it.

Sounds about right to me. Some people seem to believe that if they create content, the readers will come flocking to their site, share their content, probably buy something, and hey, presto – that content's been a success. Unfortunately, you probably already know that that just doesn't work in the real world. Content without the marketing is notcontent marketing – it's just content. And unless you already have a very large, dedicated, and active audience, creating content without marketing is very, very unlikely to get you the results you want.

In 2013, Laura Roeder of LKR Social Media wrote:

“I had been operating under the assumption that consistently updating my business's content (webinars, cheatsheets, blog posts, you name it) was the key to driving lots and lots of good traffic to my site. But think about it: how am I going to boost my numbers if no one actually knows there's new and interesting content to be consumed? So my team and I decided to follow Derek's advice and shift the focus to promoting our content more than actually producing it. Still skeptical? The traffic to my blog has actually increased, even though we've got fewer new posts that go live every week!” In short: this works. However, not everyone is quite so on board with Derek's ideology as me (and Laura)… Getting Controversial Two years ago Mark Schaefer of Business Grow wrote “Pimping your posts and the myth of the 80/20 rule”.

Of the 80/20 rule Mark says, “this is a tweetable little sound bite that's easy to remember and pass along. But it is so whacked-out that I just have to say something about it in case anybody out there is beginning to believe it.”

Uh-oh. Has Derek been misleading us all along?

Not exactly.

Mark's argument essentially boils down to the perceived practical implications of the 80/20 rule. In the blog post referenced above, he goes on to say:

“It may take me three hours or more to create a great blog post. On average, I try to create two of these posts every week. That's six hours spent on content, not counting editing guest posts, responding to comments, and attending to other details of the blog like finding images, etc. If we only count the six hours I put into writing two decent posts, the 80-20 rule would suggest I spend 24 hours a week pimping my content.” While Mark's math is correct, I think the issue lies in howliterally he is applying Derek's rule. Derek says, “create content 20% of the time time. Spend the other 80% of the time promoting what you created.”

However, Derek isn't saying that we should stick with our existing content plan, but up the amount of time we spend promoting that content. He's saying that we should amend how we use that time. Put simply, if you currently spend 20 hours a week on content creation and promotion, you should re-organise that time so you spend 4 hours creating content, and 16 hours promoting it.

You should not, as Mark might have us believe, spend 6 hours a week creating it and 24 hours (a week) promoting it. Unless, of course, you want to…

Personally, I try to write a couple of times a week for this blog. I also write regularly for Content Marketer, Forbes, andEntrepreneur – amongst others. If I were to apply the 80/20 rule in the manner that Mark's implying, I would barely have time for anything else. I'd probably struggle to find time for eating and sleeping. What's more, it's pretty easy for Mark to condemn the 80/20 rule. He's been blogging since 2009 (when the blogosphere was somewhat less competitive), has a large and loyal following, and in excess of 100k Twitter followers. He's also penned three print books, and is a regular speaker at conferences and events. It's safe to say then, that Mark needs to do very little (if anything) to promote his content, purely because he has an active following that are ready and willing to do the hard work for him. This simply isn't an issue for Mark – but that doesn't mean it's not an issue for many, many other bloggers and businesses. Now, I'm not saying that Mark doesn't have any valid points. In that same post he says, “the only people who will create long-term business value for you is your core audience – your return readers.”

And I don't disagree with him there. Growing a loyal audience (like Mark himself has) will have a huge impact on how successful your content is, and how well that translates to conversions, sales, and revenue.

This isn't an audience you can buy. It's an audience you have to create through sheer hard work and determination. But it's also important to remember that every brand and their audience is different. For some, the 80/20 rule applied across their content strategy will get them the results they need.

For others (myself included) it might not be practical to significantly cut back on the amount of time they spend on content creation. As I mentioned above, I create content for multiple publications, largely because I'm simultaneously trying to achieve a number of goals besides simply growing an audience. What then, should you do if, like me, you want to apply Derek's rule, but can't afford to significantly reduce the amount of content you create? Applying the 80/20 Rule Strategically

I want to begin this section by making something clear: not every piece of content is produced with the same purpose or goal in mind.

Some content is designed to target particular topics or keywords, rank in the search results, and drive organic traffic to a site. In other words: primarily for SEO benefits. Some content is created to drive conversions. Some content is designed with the goal of driving visits (usually referral visits), shares, and links. Some content is designed to achieve a combination of the above. If, like me and many others, you have a diverse and multi-pronged approach to your content strategy, you probably won't want to cut back on your content creation as dramatically as you would need to, were you to follow Derek's rule to the tee. If this sounds like you, here's the trick: apply the 80/20 rule onlyto those potentially viral-worthy pieces of content – the content you create with the goal of motivating an untapped audience to share it, comment on it, feature it, and link to it. Promote the rest of your content, by all means, but don't go to the extent of spending five times longer promoting each piece of your content than you did creating it, if that approach doesn't fit with your current strategy and your long term goals. Crap Content Won't Cut It As we saw above, some people are taking Derek's rule a little too literally and, consequently, aren't fully “getting” what it's really about. Another way I can see people misinterpreting Derek's rule is to assume that any piece of content can prove successful if we plough enough time and effort into promoting it. Hopefully, I don't need to tell you that this simply isn't true. To make promoting your content worth your while, the content itself has to be good. Great, even. Simply banging out any old blog post and investing 80% of your time into promoting it won't suddenly turn it into something that people will want to share. This method only works if you have the resources needed to create content that's actually worth promoting. The 80/20 rule can also be misconstrued as implying that we only need to spend a miniscule amount of time creating content. That it's okay to spend just a couple of hours on content creation, because you'll make up for what the content lacks in depth and quality with the eight hours you'll spend promoting it. Of course, that's not true either. This isn't a straight swap. You should be reducing the volume of content you create – not its quality.

This leads me back to the point above: the 80/20 rule doesn't have to be applied as a blanket rule. It's certainly open to interpretation. If you're struggling for time (and who isn't? ), you have two choices:

Follow the rule exactly, and cut back on the amount of content you create. Stick to your current content calendar, and save the 80/20 rule for you very best work. Me… I'd choose option two. I'm trying to build my personal brand, as well as promote a number of different ventures that I'm involved in. I've got too many balls in the air to simply cut down on the amount of content I create. But that's not to say that this is the right answer for everyone. In Derek's initial post about the 80/20 rule, he states that between March 2011 and April 2012, he averaged 2.54 blog posts a month. By most accounts, that isn't very many. But in the same time, he gained 27,000 subscribers. How? In his own words, “because I focused on creating great content… and then focused on getting that content into the hands of more people.”

So what is the right answer? Finding the strategy that works for you.

Free Content Marketing Course: Not all content converts. In fact, most of it doesn't. But that doesn't have to be you. Join my free ecourse now. Promote Your Existing Content As you (hopefully) now understand, a key element of the 80/20 rule is that you don't need to keep churning out content for the sake of churning out more content. This means that if you've crafted content that's done well before, there may well be scope for you to promote it again. Derek himself said, “it's smarter to find another 10,000 people to consume what you've already created as opposed to creating more.” Old blog content is crazy valuable. Hubspot performed an analysis of their blog content and found that a massive three quarters (76%) of their blog's monthly page views came from old content. I don't doubt that the stats would be pretty similar for most of us. It makes sense that they would – over time, content (tends to) gain more shares, links, and comments, which (tends to) translate to said content ranking better in the search results. Needless to say, higher rankings means more page views.

Why then, are we generally so focused on creating new content, when so many of us are, essentially, sitting on a goldmine of existing content?

Well for one thing, that old content might be outdated.

Does that mean you should leave that content to sit and rot? Of course not! Revisit it and update it. Giving old content a new lease of life can save you a huge amount of time compared to the time you'd spend creating content from scratch. Even if the content's core message hasn't aged, ask yourself whether your existing content is performing as well as it could be.

Applying the 80/20 Rule to Your Content Creation and Promotion Strategies (1) Anwendung der 80/20-Regel auf Ihre Content-Erstellungs- und Werbestrategien (1) Aplicación de la regla 80/20 a sus estrategias de creación y promoción de contenidos (1) Appliquer la règle des 80/20 à vos stratégies de création de contenu et de promotion (1) Applicare la regola dell'80/20 alle strategie di creazione e promozione dei contenuti (1) コンテンツ制作とプロモーション戦略に80/20ルールを適用する (1) Aplicando a regra 80/20 às suas estratégias de criação e promoção de conteúdo (1) Применение правила 80/20 к стратегиям создания и продвижения контента (1) Застосування правила 80/20 до ваших стратегій створення та просування контенту (1) 将 80/20 规则应用于您的内容创建和推广策略 (1)

When you create content, how long do you spend (on average) creating it, and how much time do you spend promoting it? Когда вы создаете контент, сколько времени вы тратите (в среднем) на его создание и сколько времени вы тратите на его продвижение? 60% creation and 40% promotion? 60% создание и 40% продвижение? 40% creation and 60% promotion? An even 50/50 split?

How about 20% creation, and 80% promotion? Sound farfetched? Terdengar tidak masuk akal?

Well, this is the rule that Derek Halpern of Social Triggers lives by.

According to Derek:

“The secret to building a blog with a raving fan base that's ready to buy what you sell has nothing to do with how much content you create. «Секрет создания блога с восторженной фанатской базой, готовой купить то, что вы продаете, не зависит от того, сколько контента вы создаете. It, instead, has to do with how good you are getting you are at getting your content into the hands of more people.” The logic behind Derek's rule is that it can be really difficult for bloggers and businesses, particularly those that are new to the game, to find an audience for their content. This means that they need to work extra hard; not necessarily at creating that content, but at getting people to consume and share it.

Sounds about right to me. Звучит правильно для меня. Some people seem to believe that if they create content, the readers will come flocking to their site, share their content, probably buy something, and hey, presto – that content's been a success. Некоторые люди, кажется, верят, что если они создают контент, читатели стекаются на их сайт, делятся своим контентом, возможно, что-то покупают, и вуаля — этот контент имел успех. Unfortunately, you probably already know that that just doesn't work in the real world. К сожалению, вы, вероятно, уже знаете, что в реальном мире это просто не работает. Content without the marketing is notcontent marketing – it's just content. Контент без маркетинга — это не контент-маркетинг, это просто контент. And unless you already have a very large, dedicated, and active audience, creating content without marketing is very, very unlikely to get you the results you want. И если у вас уже нет очень большой, преданной и активной аудитории, создание контента без маркетинга вряд ли принесет вам желаемые результаты.

In 2013, Laura Roeder of LKR Social Media wrote: В 2013 году Лаура Родер из LKR Social Media написала:

“I had been operating under the assumption that consistently updating my business's content (webinars, cheatsheets, blog posts, you name it) was the key to driving lots and lots of good traffic to my site. «Я исходил из предположения, что постоянное обновление контента моего бизнеса (вебинары, шпаргалки, посты в блогах и т. д.) было ключом к привлечению большого количества хорошего трафика на мой сайт. But think about it: how am I going to boost my numbers if no one actually knows there's new and interesting content to be consumed? So my team and I decided to follow Derek's advice and shift the focus to promoting our content more than actually producing it. Still skeptical? The traffic to my blog has actually increased, even though we've got fewer new posts that go live every week!” In short: this works. However, not everyone is quite so on board with Derek's ideology as me (and Laura)… Getting Controversial Two years ago Mark Schaefer of Business Grow wrote “Pimping your posts and the myth of the 80/20 rule”. 物議を醸す 2 年前、Business Grow の Mark Schaefer は、「あなたの投稿と 80/20 ルールの神話をポン引きする」と書きました。

Of the 80/20 rule Mark says, “this is a tweetable little sound bite that's easy to remember and pass along. 80/20 ルールについて、マークは次のように述べています。 But it is so whacked-out that I just have to say something about it in case anybody out there is beginning to believe it.” しかし、それは非常に打ちのめされているので、誰かがそれを信じ始めた場合に備えて、私はそれについて何か言わなければなりません。」

Uh-oh. Has Derek been misleading us all along?

Not exactly.

Mark's argument essentially boils down to the perceived practical implications of the 80/20 rule. In the blog post referenced above, he goes on to say:

“It may take me three hours or more to create a great blog post. On average, I try to create two of these posts every week. That's six hours spent on content, not counting editing guest posts, responding to comments, and attending to other details of the blog like finding images, etc. If we only count the six hours I put into writing two decent posts, the 80-20 rule would suggest I spend 24 hours a week pimping my content.” While Mark's math is correct, I think the issue lies in howliterally he is applying Derek's rule. まともな記事を 2 つ書くのに費やした 6 時間だけを数えると、80 対 20 のルールは、週に 24 時間を自分のコンテンツの売り込みに費やすことを示唆しています。」マークの計算は正しいが、問題は彼がデレクのルールをどのように文字通り適用しているかにあると思う。 Derek says, “create content 20% of the time time. Spend the other 80% of the time promoting what you created.”

However, Derek isn't saying that we should stick with our existing content plan, but up the amount of time we spend promoting that content. He's saying that we should amend how we use that time. Put simply, if you currently spend 20 hours a week on content creation and promotion, you should re-organise that time so you spend 4 hours creating content, and 16 hours promoting it.

You should not, as Mark might have us believe, spend 6 hours a week creating it and 24 hours (a week) promoting it. Unless, of course, you want to…

Personally, I try to write a couple of times a week for this blog. I also write regularly for Content Marketer, Forbes, andEntrepreneur – amongst others. If I were to apply the 80/20 rule in the manner that Mark's implying, I would barely have time for anything else. ถ้าฉันใช้กฎ 80/20 แบบที่มาร์คบอกเป็นนัย ฉันแทบจะไม่มีเวลาทำอย่างอื่นเลย I'd probably struggle to find time for eating and sleeping. ฉันคงจะลำบากในการหาเวลากินและนอน What's more, it's pretty easy for Mark to condemn the 80/20 rule. He's been blogging since 2009 (when the blogosphere was somewhat less competitive), has a large and loyal following, and in excess of 100k Twitter followers. 彼は 2009 年 (ブロゴスフィアの競争力がやや低かった頃) からブログを書いており、多くの忠実なフォロワーを持ち、Twitter のフォロワーは 10 万人を超えています。 He's also penned three print books, and is a regular speaker at conferences and events. It's safe to say then, that Mark needs to do very little (if anything) to promote his content, purely because he has an active following that are ready and willing to do the hard work for him. This simply isn't an issue for Mark – but that doesn't mean it's not an issue for many, many other bloggers and businesses. Now, I'm not saying that Mark doesn't have any valid points. In that same post he says, “the only people who will create long-term business value for you is your core audience – your return readers.”

And I don't disagree with him there. Growing a loyal audience (like Mark himself has) will have a huge impact on how successful your content is, and how well that translates to conversions, sales, and revenue.

This isn't an audience you can buy. It's an audience you have to create through sheer hard work and determination. But it's also important to remember that every brand and their audience is different. For some, the 80/20 rule applied across their content strategy will get them the results they need.

For others (myself included) it might not be practical to significantly cut back on the amount of time they spend on content creation. As I mentioned above, I create content for multiple publications, largely because I'm simultaneously trying to achieve a number of goals besides simply growing an audience. What then, should you do if, like me, you want to apply Derek's rule, but can't afford to significantly reduce the amount of content you create? では、私のように Derek のルールを適用したいが、作成するコンテンツの量を大幅に減らす余裕がない場合はどうすればよいでしょうか? Applying the 80/20 Rule Strategically

I want to begin this section by making something clear: not every piece of content is produced with the same purpose or goal in mind.

Some content is designed to target particular topics or keywords, rank in the search results, and drive organic traffic to a site. In other words: primarily for SEO benefits. Some content is created to drive conversions. Some content is designed with the goal of driving visits (usually referral visits), shares, and links. Some content is designed to achieve a combination of the above. If, like me and many others, you have a diverse and multi-pronged approach to your content strategy, you probably won't want to cut back on your content creation as dramatically as you would need to, were you to follow Derek's rule to the tee. 私や他の多くの人のように、コンテンツ戦略に対して多様で多面的なアプローチを取っている場合、コンテンツ作成を必要以上に大幅に削減したくないでしょう。ティー。 If this sounds like you, here's the trick: apply the 80/20 rule onlyto those potentially viral-worthy pieces of content – the content you create with the goal of motivating an untapped audience to share it, comment on it, feature it, and link to it. これがあなたのように聞こえるなら、ここに秘訣があります: 80/20 ルールは、潜在的にバイラル価値のあるコンテンツにのみ適用してください。それにリンクします。 Promote the rest of your content, by all means, but don't go to the extent of spending five times longer promoting each piece of your content than you did creating it, if that approach doesn't fit with your current strategy and your long term goals. 残りのコンテンツの宣伝は必ず行いますが、そのアプローチが現在の戦略や長い期間に合わない場合は、コンテンツの各部分の宣伝に、作成した時間の 5 倍の時間を費やすことは避けてください。期間の目標。 Crap Content Won't Cut It As we saw above, some people are taking Derek's rule a little too literally and, consequently, aren't fully “getting” what it's really about. くだらないコンテンツはそれをカットしない 上で見たように、一部の人々はデレクのルールを少し文字通りに解釈しすぎており、その結果、それが実際に何を意味するのかを完全に「理解」していません。 Another way I can see people misinterpreting Derek's rule is to assume that any piece of content can prove successful if we plough enough time and effort into promoting it. Hopefully, I don't need to tell you that this simply isn't true. To make promoting your content worth your while, the content itself has to be good. コンテンツを宣伝する価値があるようにするには、コンテンツ自体が優れている必要があります。 Great, even. Simply banging out any old blog post and investing 80% of your time into promoting it won't suddenly turn it into something that people will want to share. This method only works if you have the resources needed to create content that's actually worth promoting. The 80/20 rule can also be misconstrued as implying that we only need to spend a miniscule amount of time creating content. That it's okay to spend just a couple of hours on content creation, because you'll make up for what the content lacks in depth and quality with the eight hours you'll spend promoting it. コンテンツの作成に 2 時間ほど費やすだけで問題ありません。コンテンツの深みと質に欠けている部分を、プロモーションに 8 時間費やすことで補うことができるからです。 Of course, that's not true either. もちろん、それも真実ではありません。 This isn't a straight swap. これは単純な交換ではありません。 You should be reducing the volume of content you create – not its quality.

This leads me back to the point above: the 80/20 rule doesn't have to be applied as a blanket rule. It's certainly open to interpretation. それは確かに解釈の余地があります。 If you're struggling for time (and who isn't? ), you have two choices:

Follow the rule exactly, and cut back on the amount of content you create. Stick to your current content calendar, and save the 80/20 rule for you very best work. Me… I'd choose option two. I'm trying to build my personal brand, as well as promote a number of different ventures that I'm involved in. I've got too many balls in the air to simply cut down on the amount of content I create. But that's not to say that this is the right answer for everyone. In Derek's initial post about the 80/20 rule, he states that between March 2011 and April 2012, he averaged 2.54 blog posts a month. By most accounts, that isn't very many. But in the same time, he gained 27,000 subscribers. How? In his own words, “because I focused on creating great content… and then focused on getting that content into the hands of more people.”

So what is the right answer? Finding the strategy that works for you.

Free Content Marketing Course: Not all content converts. In fact, most of it doesn't. But that doesn't have to be you. Join my free ecourse now. Promote Your Existing Content As you (hopefully) now understand, a key element of the 80/20 rule is that you don't need to keep churning out content for the sake of churning out more content. This means that if you've crafted content that's done well before, there may well be scope for you to promote it again. Derek himself said, “it's smarter to find another 10,000 people to consume what you've already created as opposed to creating more.” Derek 自身は、「さらに作成するよりも、既に作成したものを消費する別の 10,000 人を見つける方が賢明です」と述べています。 Old blog content is crazy valuable. Hubspot performed an analysis of their blog content and found that a massive three quarters (76%) of their blog's monthly page views came from old content. I don't doubt that the stats would be pretty similar for most of us. It makes sense that they would – over time, content (tends to) gain more shares, links, and comments, which (tends to) translate to said content ranking better in the search results. Needless to say, higher rankings means more page views. 言うまでもなく、ランキングが高いということは、ページ ビューが多いことを意味します。

Why then, are we generally so focused on creating new content, when so many of us are, essentially, sitting on a goldmine of existing content?

Well for one thing, that old content might be outdated.

Does that mean you should leave that content to sit and rot? Of course not! Revisit it and update it. Giving old content a new lease of life can save you a huge amount of time compared to the time you'd spend creating content from scratch. Even if the content's core message hasn't aged, ask yourself whether your existing content is performing as well as it could be.